parrot tv

[cimorene]

A few months ago I was suggested a random video of a balcony full of screaming kookaburras on YouTube and posted to ask my Australian flist if that is a normal or expected Australian occurrence, and from the amusing things they kindly told me about Australian bird life I got interested and did a number of searches on YouTube to see the birds in question...

...and since then YouTube's algorithm has been showing me more and more content related to parrots, in a really delightful instance of the same phenomenon that radicalizes people, I assume. (I'm still not really sure why the original screaming kookaburras showed up, though.)

So far, I have hardly seen anything boring related to parrots in any way, so it's all good! I've learned a lot:

• that budgerigars, cockatiels and cockatoos are all members of the parrot family


• that cockatoos and budgies talk too, but the smaller the parrot, the weirder it sounds, and the more like you're hearing someone with a throat injury or through a walkie-talkie


• that cockatoos are amazingly similar to five-year-old humans and they don't just reproduce speech randomly, they use language to communicate, but in a hilariously weird way that is not the way people (or, say, grey parrots) do


• that even budgies can learn enormous vocabularies and construct novel sentences by recombining parts


• that kakapos are parrots too but there aren't nearly enough videos of them

I wouldn't say I'm exactly in parrot fandom, but I'm definitely enjoying watching a lot of parrot content at the moment (which is good, because I've been trying to knit and I have not felt emotionally equal to investing myself in the fates of more fictional characters in dramas).

We got the animal blood tester out today, wanting to try to draw Snookums's first 12-hr blood glucose curve, but only then discovered there was a fourth component we needed to have bought separately (a test solution to calibrate the tester with) and didn't. It should be here in a couple more days.

Comments

[flamebyrd]

I just feel the need to inform you that as I am reading this, the cockatoos that live in the park next door are squawking very loudly. (Probably red tailed black cockatoos.)

I rarely hear kookaburras in the mornings, but I definitely hear a lot of parrots.

[used_songs]

I love the notion of parrot fandom.

[copracat]

We've got rosellas in the trees next to my work building. Because our windows are reflective they can't see us inside, so they'll sometimes come and hangout on the windowsills. I have a window desk. It's so cool.

[krait]

I am totally in parrot fandom, so welcome!

My favourites are mostly large species that I can never own, but one day I may find my way to acquiring a Pacific Parrotlet because 1) they are adorable, 2) they have a more managable size and lifespan, and 3) they come in blue and I am 100% weak to blue animals (see also: my icon.)

Kakapos are awesome! There should definitely be more videos of them. I'm super interested in bird communication and language, not just in parrots, and one day I want to write an original novel with an alien species/language that draws from birds.

[yvannairie]

Man, the Almighty Algorithm does apparently work, for me it just shows the same half a dozen channels over and over because they're the only ones making content I'm interested in :(

[lazaefair]

Hah! That’s exactly how I fell down the barbershop quartet rabbit hole a couple weeks ago. Don’t know why or how the original video showed up - can’t even remember what it was - but I clicked, and now it’s nothing but four-part harmony all day every day in my suggestions. I’m not sad about it.

You’ve seen the video of the kakapo attempting to mate with Sir David Attenborough, right?

[weconqueratdawn]

I'm a paid-up member of the parrot fandom so I 100% appreciate this post :)

And as a Londoner I can tell you it's common here to have a balcony full of screaming ring-necked parakeets, which is exciting and probably not what visitors to London expect. I get treated to fly-pasts when I'm writing :)

Also, I saw your comment about R2D2 - one of my late lovebirds (also parrots) used to remind me if R2D2 very, very much!! Not just in sound but in movement too - he had a round tummy, a fast clockwork-bird walk and idk, a similar way of expressing curiosity??

[laurenthemself]

Kookas at my parents' place!